


Holly Jolly Christmas

by erin_means_peace



Category: Santa Clause (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, First Crush, First Love, Fluff, Little bit of angst, Love at First Sight, Will the elves ever stop teasing Bernard?, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-16 06:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13048041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erin_means_peace/pseuds/erin_means_peace
Summary: When Santa brings his clumsy teenage daughter to live at the North Pole with him, at first the head elf Bernard is far less than pleased. But once he meets her he can't help falling in love. But can they be together? After all it would be against the rules to be in a relationship with Santa's daughter...Feedback is much appreciated!





	1. Snowy Surprise

"Bernard! Wait up!" Curtis called after the Head Elf as the two of them ran down the hall. "It's really not that bad-" 

"Not that bad!" Bernard turns on his heel and stares down the younger elf. "Curtis we have a teenage human girl living amongst us!" He exclaims. "They are known throughout the world as the ultimate plague on progress with their hormones and their gossip! Santa has brought the ultimate evil to the North Pole and  while I know his intentions were good with bringing his daughter here to visit but to LIVE at the North Pole! That's very much against the rules!" Bernard says and briskly walks down the hall towards Santa's room. 

"Bernard!" Curtis exclaims. "What exactly do you even plan on telling Santa? He's the one in charge. We can't just tell him to kick out his daughter." 

"Of course I'm not going to tell him that." Bernard says. "I'm just going to explain to him that having a teenage girl here would add a lot of stress to the work environment and it may be a good idea to limit 'living' here to just partial visitation during our less hectic months of the year." 

With that Bernard knocked on the door to Santa's room and he opened it. 

"Bernard? Curtis?" He asks. "Is there something wrong? I'm not due to be down at the shop for another hour." 

"Yes Santa something is wrong." Bernard says and steps inside. "Curtis here tells me you've brought your daughter, Holly I believe her name is, to come stay with us here at the Pole?" Santa sighed. 

"Yeah Bernard I brought her here to live with us." Scott explains. "I know it's a violation of the rules and everything Bernard but I had no choice. I had Holly back when I was younger, before Laura. She's about two years older than Charlie. She was born on Christmas actually." He says with a chuckle and Curtis smiles. Bernard grinned slightly. "Her mother and I broke up and she promised that she could take care of Holly. But as of late, said mother has...gotten into some trouble, making her unfit to take care of our daughter and she was going to be sent into foster care since I'm up here. Bernard you've seen what happens to kids in that system." 

"I have." Bernard says solemnly and nods. "Those poor children. We have to work our hardest for them. Christmas is the only joy they ever get it would seem." 

"And I don't want my daughter to end up in that situation." Scott says. "She still has one parent capable of taking care of her and so I need to step up and raise her." 

"Yes but won't that be an issue, juggling your responsibilities as Santa with also raising a daughter-" Bernard tries to persuade but then Judy comes running into the room. 

"Sir! There's an emergency in the workshop! The snow machine for the snow globes had a pipe break and now the snow is covering everything!" Judy exclaims. 

The three elves and Santa all go running down to the workshop area to see what they can do to help fix the break. When they swing the doors open it was like they had stepped out into a blizzard. Snow was flying everywhere and it was hard to see what was going on. 

"We've got to shut this thing off before everyone gets buried alive!" Curtis exclaims. 

"I'm tall enough that I won't get buried!" Scott says. "I'll go shut it off! Bernard, come with me! I'll need your help." Scott says. 

"Why can't I help?" Curtis asks. 

"You're too short you'll just get buried in the snow! Try to help the other elves get out!" Bernard instructs Curtis. 

Scott and Bernard wade through the workshop and see the machine up ahead. All the while Bernard's fury was slowly growing as he thought about who might have been the cause of this accident. He pulled an elf out who was buried in the snow and after asking if they were alright proceeded to question...

"How did this happen?" Bernard asks. 

"Santa's daughter Holly!" The elf exclaims. "She noticed the snow globe machine was lagging and tried to fix it herself to make it go faster but then she wound up bursting the pipe and snow started going everywhere!" Bernard growled. 

"I should have known." Bernard grumbles and rolls his eyes. "Go help the other elves, Santa and I will shut off the pipe." 

The elf ran off to help the others and Bernard waded his way up to Scott. 

"See what I'm talking about here!" Bernard stresses to his boss. "It's dangerous to have someone live here that doesn't know what they're doing. Not only is Holly a danger to the workshop but she's put herself at risk too!" 

"I see that now Bernard. I suppose you're right." Scott sighs as he pulls the lever for the machine to shut it off and Bernard grasps it as well and helps him pull until the machine powered down and it stopped snowing in the room."I'll talk with her." 

"That's a good idea Sir." Bernard says and lays a hand on Scott's arm. "Now let's help get out all the elves and your daughter that are trapped in the snow."  

Scott and Bernard went around, pulling out elves that were trapped in the snow and had trouble getting out. 

"See this is what happens when humans come to the North Pole!" Bernard stresses to all the elves as they all stand around the room, waiting for instruction from either him or Scott. "I know you guys are always talking about how much fun it would be to have Santa's kids come and stay with us but that would only lead to disaster, the like of which has just been demonstrated to you!" Bernard pointed out, gesturing to the room around them. 

All of the elves hung their heads low in shame, even Scott felt really bad for bringing his daughter here now. 

"This mess will take a day at most to clean up! That means we lose a day of work! And every minute counts!" Bernard exclaims. "I understand she's your daughter Santa and I mean no disrespect to her or you but having her here can only bring trouble!" 

"She's really not that bad Bernard!" Curtis tries to explain to the older elf. "She's just a bit clumsy. But her intentions are good and she's so kind to all the elves!" They all nod in agreement. "She just wanted to help us out so we could get our work done and have a little fun!" 

"Does having all of this snow in the workshop look like fun to you!" Bernard exclaims and gestures to the huge mess around them. 

He noticed a hand poke through the snow and wave around blindly looking for something to grab onto. Bernard took a hold of the hand and prepared to pull the trapped person out of the snow. "You guys all seem to think she's pretty fun but from my point of view I'd say she's pretty-Whoa!" Bernard exclaims as he  pulls the person out but they were a lot bigger than he was expecting and they end up falling on top of him and the two of them land in another snowbank together. 

All the elves laughed and Scott did too, amused by his daughter's clumsiness and also relieved that she was alright. Bernard was fuming as he shook the snowflakes out of his eyes and started to sit up. Fury in his eyes as he looked up to see the person currently on top of him who had caused him such embarrassment. 

"Pretty-" He's about to snap an angry comment but stops when he meets the person's eyes. 

He had never seen such a lovely shade of green before. In fact, he had never seen such a lovely person in general. The girl laying on top of him had fair skin, with a pink blush gently dusting her cheeks. Her face framed by two long locks of chocolate hair that were curled at the ends and fell past her shoulders, more cascaded down her back, held in place by a barrette on the back of her head. The head elf was at a loss for words. 

"I'm so sorry!" The girl says and stands up. 

She wore a blue hoodie with black leggings and tan Ugg boots. When she stood up Bernard realized she appeared to be around his age. His heart skipped a beat when she took his hand and helped him stand up out of the snowbank. 

"I didn't mean to knock you over!" She apologizes. "I guess you could say I'm pretty clumsy." She blushes and smiles a bit. 

"Yeah..." Bernard says dreamily and smiles at her. The two of them still in very close proximity with one another. "Pretty..." He compliments softly. 

"That's classic Holly." Scott says and laughs. 

Suddenly Bernard's smile fell and his eyes widened when he realized this beautiful girl lacked pointed ears. 

"Y-you're Holly?" Bernard asks and the girl nods. 

"Yeah." She answers. "I'm so sorry about all the trouble I've caused." She says and Bernard can feel the tips of his ears burn as Holly starts brushing the snowflakes off of his shirt from his shoulders. 

"It's okay." Bernard quickly tries to assure her and all the elves gasp. "It's no trouble at all. You were simply trying to help speed up production. You just made a mistake that's all." Bernard says and gently takes her hands again and puts them down, his eyes never leaving hers. 

"Thanks for saving me from being buried alive." Holly thanks him. 

"Oh I didn't really save you." Bernard says. "All I did was pull you out of the snow." 

"Yeah but you were the one that did it." Holly reminds him. "No one else tried to pull me out." 

"Well I uh..." Bernard felt Holly's hands leave his as she rushed over to her dad who had come over and given her a big hug. 

"Thank goodness you're alright sweetheart." Scott tells his daughter before releasing her from the hug and looking seriously at her. "But you could have been really hurt. Maybe living here with me isn't the best place for you." 

"I'm sorry dad. I really wish I could stay here with you." Holly says and hugs her father again. 

"Maybe we could just find another place for her here." Bernard suggests and the father and daughter turn to him. "Clearly the workshop isn't really...working out. But that doesn't mean that she couldn't be of some help in the kitchen, or in the stables maybe?" 

"Yeah! Maybe I'll be better at helping people out there!" Holly exclaims. 

"Well it's definitely worth a shot." Scott says and Holly hugs him. 

"Thank you so much dad! I promise I won't let you down!" She says then goes over to Bernard and throws her arms around him in a tight hug that he slowly returns. "And thank you Bernard...You're the best head elf ever!" She says and gives him a quick peck on the cheek that leaves him stunned with the tips of his ears burning as Holly releases herself from his embrace and runs off. 

"Whoa! Hey! Easy on the affection there sweetheart! You don't want to go giving people the wrong idea!" Scott calls after his daughter after witnessing what she did to Bernard who was still in shock, gently touching his cheek. "Sorry about that Bernard. I'll make sure she doesn't do that again." 

"Oh I don't mind at all Sir." Bernard says and smiles, then stops when he sees Scott arch an eyebrow at him. 

"Excuse me?" Scott asks and Bernard stammers. 

"I-I mean it's fine. She just didn't know any better I suppose. Sure that was a bit surprising but I'll be fine." Bernard quickly corrects himself and Santa smiles and nods. 

"Alright then. Thanks for everything Bernard." He says and pats Bernard on the shoulder. "Just to be safe though I should probably take down some of this mistletoe. There's a bit too much around here..." 

"Whatever you wish Sir." Bernard says. 

"Alright. Make sure this workshop gets operational again as soon as possible." Santa instructs and leaves. 

"Will do Sir!" Bernard says and turns to find all the elves staring at him. "What are you all looking at me like that for?" He snaps. 

"I think somebody's in lloooovvvee." Judy says. 

Some girl elves giggle with her and Bernard blushes. 

"W-what!?" He exclaims. "You all think I'm in love?" He asks in a high voice. 

"It's pretty obvious you're into Holly dude." Judy tells him. "One minute you absolutely despise her, and the minute you see her you're suddenly very forgiving of her 'unforgivable' mistake..." 

"Yeah. You should probably be the one to start taking down mistletoe." Curtis says. "And save some for yourself. You never know when Holly might walk by..." Curtis teases then closes his eyes and puckers his lips and makes kissy noises at the head elf.

Bernard felt steam come out of his ears and he shoved a shovel into Curtis and the younger elf fell into a snowbank. 

"Perhaps I should remind you all that she is Santa's daughter! Any fraternization with her would be a serious violation of the rules!" Bernard snaps at all of them angrily. "And as head elf it would be very very wrong of me to do such a thing. No matter how sweet and pretty..." He says and smiles to himself and shuffles his foot on the ground a bit. 

"Bernard has a crush!" They all exclaim in a teasing tone. 

"I do not!" Bernard bellows. "Now get to work immediately! I expect you all to work twice as fast now since you've already wasted your break teasing me!" He barks and all the elves scramble to get shovels and Bernard storms out of the workshop. 

Once he's outside he closes the door and leans against it, sliding down leaving him sitting up against it. 

"Beauty thy name is Holly..." Bernard mutters.


	2. Accidentally in Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a few more "accidents" Bernard finds himself falling even deeper in love with Holly.

"Where are you off to?" Curtis asks the head elf as he passes him in the hallway. 

"I'm off to give Santa a status report." Bernard says and sips his mug of cocoa. "Have you seen him?" 

"Yeah he's in the stable checking on Comet. He's had a bit of a sugar rush and needs some fiber..." Curtis explains and Bernard shivers. 

"Hopefully I'll get this over with quick." Bernard says. 

"Yeah. Because afterwards you can go find Holly..." Curtis says in a teasing voice and winks at him. 

"Curtis..." Bernard growls. 

"Oh Bernard!" Curtis says in a high voice, pretending to be Holly. "Thank you so much for pulling me out of the snow! You're so handsome, I want to kiss you under the mistletoe and make a snowman with you-" Bernard slaps a hand over Curtis's mouth and looks around. 

"Don't say such vulgar things like that out loud!" Bernard stresses. "I don't want Santa to hear! You saw how he reacted when that one elf flirted with her in the kitchen!" Bernard reminded Curtis. 

"His face was as red as his suit..." Curtis recalls. 

"And his voice could've caused an avalanche..." Bernard gulps. "It would be worse if it were me! I look Holly's age! If he thinks I'm in love with his daughter I'll get in even bigger trouble than that unfortunate elf!" 

"Alright sorry man. I'll keep your crush a secret." Curtis says. 

"Thank you-no wait wait a minute! I do not like Holly." Bernard quickly corrects himself and laughs. 

"Pfft. Seriously? You're still trying to pull off that lie?" Curtis asks. 

"It's that obvious?" Bernard asks. 

"Dude. The whole workshop knows you're sweeter than cocoa on her." Curtis tells him. "You get all doey eyed whenever you see her, no one can get through to you when you stare at her, you become just as klutzy as her whenever she talks to you-"

"I do not!" Bernard argues. 

"Hey Bernard!" Holly says. 

"Holly!" Bernard exclaims and drops his clipboard and nearly spills his mug. "W-what are you d-doing here?" 

"I was just walking by and noticed you, so I thought I'd stop by and say hi." Holly says cheerfully. "What were you boys talking about?" 

"Nothing!" Both of them say. 

"Okay...well uh..." Holly noticed some elves playing football. "You guys play football here?" 

"Yeah! Bernard is the best player!" Curtis lies and Bernard looks at him with wide eyes. 

"Really?" Holly asks. "That's probably because you're a lot taller than the other elves isn't it?" 

"Probably. Thankfully I don't play too much because I'm a very busy elf. Being your dad's second in command comes with a lot of responsibility ya know." Bernard says and Holly smiles. 

"I guess. Why don't you play with them now? You aren't too busy are you?" Holly asks. 

"Well I mean I..." Bernard stammers. 

"Sure he can!" Curtis steps in. 

"Curtis-" Bernard says through gritted teeth. 

"Come on Bernard. Play a game. For Holly." He says and winks and Holly blushed. Bernard swallowed a lump in his throat. 

"Okay I'll play." Bernard says and gives his mug and clipboard to Curtis and goes out into the courtyard, followed by Curtis and Holly. 

"Go Bernard!" Holly cheers. 

They started to play and so far everything went well. Curtis was right. Because of his height he actually was a lot better at this game than he thought. And even better, it seemed like Holly was impressed...He looked over at her and saw her smiling at him. His heart had never beat so fast. Suddenly he found himself face first in the snow as another elf tackled him. 

"What happened?" Scott asks as he bends over to come into the elf infirmary. 

"Bernard got tackled." Curtis says simply. 

"Bad?" Scott asks. 

Holly lifted the ice pack that was on his head and Scott saw the welt and winced. 

"Yikes. That's awful." He says. 

"It feels worse than it looks." Bernard adds. 

"Poor thing." Holly says. "I feel awful. This is all my fault. I never should have asked you to go play with them." 

"It's fine Holly." Bernard assures her. "You weren't the one that tackled me." 

"I know but I still feel bad." She says and applies the ice to his head again. 

"Alright well take it easy today Bernard." Scott says. "Try not to get stressed out too much, that might make your head feel worse." 

"I'll try my best but I make no promises." Bernard tells him. 

"Maybe we should put Holly in charge of tending to him?" Curtis suggests as he and Scott leave the infirmary. "I bet Bernard would love to have her around all day." 

"And why is that Curtis?" Scott asks in a serious tone and Curtis realizes he messed up. 

"Because she does the best job taking care of us!" Curtis says quickly. "I mean you saw how attentive she was to Bernard. She'd make a great nurse for him." 

"That's sweet of you to say Curtis but Holly seems to really like taking care of the reindeer. Besides, at least there elves aren't trying to flirt with her." Scott says and shivers. 

"Sir, you do realize with her living here at the Pole she's going to get close to some of the elves. She may even want to date one-" Curtis explains but Scott cuts him off.

 "Over my dead body she will." Scott tells him. "Besides you guys are all immortal aren't you? Why would you want to date a human teenager? And I doubt she'd ever find any of you attractive considering you all have the appearance of children, aside from Bernard. Bernard actually looks her age now that I think about it..." 

"Are you worried that Bernard and Holly might get together?" Curtis asks cautiously. 

Scott thinks for a minute then laughs. 

"What's so funny?" Curtis asks. 

"The thought of Bernard dating anyone let alone Holly!" Scott says. "I mean no offense to him but he's so uptight and grumpy about almost everything! It'd be a miracle if he found someone that liked him like that. I'm not worried about Holly liking him at all." Scott concludes and he and Curtis continue on into the workshop. 

Later that day Bernard went to the stable to do some check ups on the reindeer. Scott had given him simple tasks to do that day that wouldn't cause too much stress to help his head heal. All of the reindeer seemed to be fine and given the proper amount of hay. He was just about to leave when he heard a scream from the loft above and held out his arms when he saw someone fall. He immediately blushed when he saw that he had just caught Holly and was now holding her bridal style in his arms. 

"Holly! What happened? Are you okay?" Bernard asks quickly. 

"I tripped on a rope and fell." Holly explains. "And I'm fine. Thanks to you. You saved me again." 

"Aw, Holly really it was nothing." Bernard says, trying to ignore the feel of her arms against his neck as she wraps them loosely around him. "I just happened to be in here when you fell." 

"Well if you weren't here you'd be taking care of me in the infirmary." Holly says. 

"Wow. That would be quite a coincidence wouldn't it?" Bernard asks and laughs a bit. 

Holly giggled, and Bernard felt his heart racing. He was still holding her in his arms. And she hadn't asked him to put her down. 

"It would. Is your head feeling better?" She asks him. 

"A lot better. It should be fine by tomorrow." Bernard tells her. 

"That's great! I was worried about you..." She admits. 

"Y-you were worried about me?" He asks. 

"Yeah." Holly says. "You're such an amazing elf, and you do so much for the elves and my dad. Honestly I don't think this place would be the same without you." 

"You're so sweet Holly." Bernard says. 

Holly blushed and fluttered her eyelashes. "Thank you. You know, out of all the elves I've met here, I think you might be my favorite." 

"Really?" Bernard asks and smiles brightly. 

"Uh huh." She answers. "Everyone always says you're really grumpy but whenever I see you you're always happy. And you're so kind to me, and you've saved me twice now! No guy has ever done that for me before. I do have to ask though...You're not just doing all of this for me because my dad is your boss, right?" 

"Of course not!" Bernard answers immediately. "Holly I could care less that your dad is Santa. All I care about is the person you are. You're so determined to help people in any way you can. To me that one trait alone says a lot about you. Enough for me to say that you must be an incredible girl, and I wish I knew more than just that about you." 

"Well there is a way to find out more." Holly tells him. 

"Really!" Bernard exclaims. "How?" 

"You could hang out with me." Holly laughs. 

"Oh, right." Bernard says and blushes. "You want to hang out sometime?"

"I'd love to, should we meet back here tonight?" Holly asks. 

"Actually I have something else in mind." Bernard says and smiles. "Meet me in the courtyard at 11:00 tonight." 

"Okay. What are we going to do?" Holly asks. 

"It's a surprise." Bernard says and winks. Holly giggles. 

Suddenly she gets a curious look on her face. Bernard looks confused. 

"What is it Hol-" He stops when her hand gently brushes his cheek. 

"Elves do have silver specks on their cheeks." Holly says and smiles. "They're pretty." She says and leans into him to get a closer look. 

"So are you." Bernard tells her without even thinking about it. 

Suddenly Holly starts to lean into him more. Emerald green eyes meeting cocoa brown. Their eyes closed as their noses crossed and Bernard prepared to meet her lips with his when an alarm went off and they pulled their faces apart and looked around. 

"What's going on?" She asks. "Elfcon 2!" Bernard exclaims. "Some humans must have flown a plane in our airspace." He explains and sets her down. 

"What do we do?" Holly asks. 

"Just get to the workshop and tell all the elves to be quiet. I'll come to get you when we're all clear." Bernard promises before running off. 

"And again tonight? Remember?" Holly reminds him and he smiles at her. 

"Trust me, I won't forget." He says honestly before leaving. 

 **A/N:** I hope you all enjoyed! Feedback is much appreciated if you want me to continue!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! Feedback is much appreciated if you want me to continue!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always please leave feedback if you want me to continue!


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